pop up message question

[dphan128]

Hi all,

How do I generate a pop up message that will stay open until a digital boolean is received from DAQmx. Then it should be turn off.

Thanks

Dan

[jon_mcbee]

You could use an action engine, see this example:

Message Edited by jmcbee on 03-18-2009 10:44 AM

[Broken_Arrow]

Action Engine is ideal. Other alternative is by Reference or Global Variable (assuming your digital boolean has an indicator associated with it).

[nathand]

What else is happening while you wait for the digital input to be true?  If the rest of your code can wait while the pop-up is active, then you could create a subVI with an input for a DAQmx task, and then inside that subVI read the digital input and stop when it's true.  You'll want to look under File->VI Properties to set your VI to show its front panel when called.  If you need the rest of your code to continue running while the pop-up is active, then you'll need to move the pop-up VI into a separate loop and have a way to start and stop it.  For example, you might create a separate while loop that waits on a notifier and when it receives notification it runs your pop-up VI; inside the pop-up VI you would again wait on that notifier (with Ignore Previous set to true) and stop the pop-up when it receives notification.  You could also use a user event to stop the pop-up VI.

[Broken_Arrow]

I think we need to know what part of this task you need help with.

It sounds like you just have an issue with VI to VI interaction, and you now have lots of possibilities (Action Engine, by Reference, Global, Local Variable, Notifier, Queue). What's best will depend on your code structure.

[dphan128]

Thank you all for your quick responses. Since I'm not an advanced LV user, I don't quite understand "action engine" solution and prefer not to go that round.

I'm now using sate machine in my program and I guess my need is to know how to create a generic pop up message vi and then I could go from there.

Thanks

[jon_mcbee]

Take a look at the example I posted, it has a generic popup message in it.  Otherwise you can go select the "Prompt User for Input" function off the Dialog and User Interface Pallete, drop in on the block diagram, right click it and select "Open Front Panel".  Now you have a generic popup message.

[Broken_Arrow]

pop-up boxes are a dime a dozen. I don't think the message box is going to be your hurdle. Here's one anyway...

Message Edited by Broken Arrow on 03-18-2009 02:05 PM

[dphan128]

I think I have found my own answer after reading all your responses! Simply I will use string indicator and property node "visible" to turn it on early and then off at the detection of boolean signal from DAQmx. I'm now looking for a property that give control over position of the string in related to the screen (e.g how to set it at center of screen no matter what LCD I'm using).

dphan128

[Broken_Arrow]

Perfect! you don't always need a pop-up to get the user's attention. I often show/hide a boolean indicator whose boolean text is set to what I want.

Regarding positioning the string, I use the Pane property node and get the Bounds, then get half that value, and set the control's Position node with that.